Managing Bearers in a Radio Access Network

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS) to: generate and cause transmission of a bearer setup request message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS; receive, from the CU-UP, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP; and generate and cause transmission of a user equipment (UE) context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS, wherein the UE context setup request message includes the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the CU-CP to: receive, from the DU, a UE context setup response message that is to include a TNLA and a TED for F1 downlink (DL) associated with the DU; generate and cause transmission of a bearer modify request message to the CU-UP, wherein the bearer modify request message is to include the TNLA and TEID for F1 DL associated with the DU; and receive, from the CU-UP, a bearer modify response message that is to indicate establishment of one or more general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnels between the DU and the CU-UP.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2 , wherein the UE context setup response message further comprises a data radio bearer (DRB) configuration.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the CU-UP is implemented using virtualization technology or cloud computing technology.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the TNLA for F1 UL is selected from a plurality of TNLAs.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein a GTP tunnel is represented by a combination of TEIDs and TNLAs.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to: receive a TED that is assigned to F1 UL from the CU-UP.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS) to: generate and cause transmission of a bearer setup message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS; receive, from the CU-UP, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP; and generate and cause transmission of a bearer context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS that is to include the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the CU-CP to: receive, from the DU, a bearer context setup response message that is to include a TNLA7 and a TEID for F1 downlink (DL) associated with the DU; generate and cause transmission of a bearer modify message to the CU-UP, wherein the bearer modify message comprises the TNLA and TEID for F1 DL associated with the DU; and receive a bearer modify response message from the CU-UP, wherein the bearer modify response message indicates activation of one or more general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnels between the DU and the CU-UP.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the CU-UP is implemented using virtualization technology or cloud computing technology and wherein the TNLA for F1 UL is selected from a plurality of TNLAs.

11. An apparatus to implement a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS), the apparatus comprising: interface circuitry to transmit and receive messages; and processing circuitry, coupled with the interface circuitry, to generate a bearer setup request message and cause the interface circuitry to transmit the bearer setup request message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS; receive, from the CU-UP via the interface circuitry, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP; and generate a user equipment (UE) context setup request message and cause the interface circuitry to transmit the UE context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS, wherein the UE context setup request message comprises the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is further to: receive, from the DU via the interface circuitry, a UE context setup response message that is to include a TNLA and a TEID for F1 downlink (DL) associated with the DU; generate and cause the interface circuitry to transmit a bearer modify request message to the CU-UP, wherein the bearer modify request message is to include the TNLA and TEID for F1 DL associated with the DU; and receive, from the CU-UP via the interface circuitry, a bearer modify response message that is to indicate establishment of one or more general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnels between the DU and the CU-UP.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the CU-UP 1s implemented using virtualization technology or cloud computing technology.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the TNLA for F1 UL is selected from a plurality of TNLAs.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the UE context setup response message further comprises a data radio bearer (DRB) configuration.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein a GTP tunnel is represented by a combination of TEID and a TNLA.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuitry is further to: receive, via the interface circuitry, a TEID that is assigned to F1 UL from the CU-UP.

18. An apparatus comprising one or more baseband processors coupled to a central processing unit (CPU), the apparatus comprising means for causing a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS) to: generate and cause transmission of a bearer setup message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS; receive, from the CU-UP, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP; and generate and cause transmission of a bearer context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS that is to include the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP, wherein a third message comprises a first TNLA and a first TEID.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the apparatus further comprises means for causing the CU-CP to: receive, from the DU, a bearer context setup response message that is to include a TNLA and a TEID for F1 downlink (DL) associated with the DU; generate and cause transmission of a bearer modify message to the CU-UP, wherein the bearer modify message comprises the TNLA and TEID for FI DL associated with the DU; and receive a bearer modify response message from the CU-UP, wherein the bearer modify response message indicates activation of one or more general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnels between the DU and the CU-UP.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the CU-UP is implemented using virtualization technology or cloud computing technology and wherein the TNLA for F1 UL is selected from a plurality of TNLAs.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a control-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of a base station (BS) to: assign a first transport network layer address (TNLA) to one or more general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnels; generate and cause transmission of a bearer relocate message to a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of the BS, the bearer relocate message comprising the first TNLA; and receive, from the CU-CP, a bearer relocation acknowledgment message indicating that the first TNLA has replaced a second TNLA.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21 , wherein the bearer relocation acknowledgement message comprises the first TNLA, wherein the first TNLA is for FI downlink (DL), and wherein the first TNLA is updated by a distributed unit (DU) for each affected GTP-U tunnel.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21 , wherein the CU-UP is implemented using virtualization technology or cloud computing technology.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23 , wherein the first TNLA is assigned in response to a virtual machine migration or local failure.